National Catholic Reporter - Washingtonhttps://www.ncronline.org/locations/washington
enRefugee groups fight Trump travel ban — and for their own survivalhttps://www.ncronline.org/news/people/refugee-groups-fight-trump-travel-ban-and-their-own-survival
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Supporters surround a group who perform the Islamic midday prayer outside the White House in Washington, on Jan. 27, 2018, during a rally on the one-year anniversary of the Trump Administration’s first partial travel ban on citizens from seven Muslim majority countries. (AP/Andrew Harnik) </div>
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<p>Eight years ago, John Giri, a refugee from Bhutan, came to the U.S. and then turned around to help others settle in this country. </p>
<p>After working for a tortilla company in Atlanta, he landed a job as an interpreter for World Relief, the same evangelical Christian organization that had helped him adapt to life in the U.S. after almost 20 years in a refugee camp in Nepal.</p>
<p>“I came as a refugee — I know the process,” he said, reflecting on six years working with World Relief. “I have been through all the difficulties of life in a refugee camp and know what it is to be a refugee.”</p>
<p>Giri, a Baptist, was eventually promoted to case manager.</p>
<p>But all that came to a screeching halt in March 2017, when Giri and nine of his co-workers were abruptly laid off.</p>
<p>“I was angry — emotionally harmed,” he said, adding that it took months to find another job. But while he acknowledged initial frustration with his employer, he also expressed ire toward another source: the Trump administration.</p>
<p>“My frustration was [also] over the change of policies and change in government,” he said.</p>
<p>Giri is one of hundreds of resettlement workers who have lost their jobs over the past year — many, refugees themselves.</p>
<p>Refugee aid groups have conducted massive layoffs and office closures ever since the Trump administration began issuing various versions of a travel ban, sometimes called a “Muslim ban.” The groups have been left on the hook for empty apartments and have had to explain to interested churches why they can't bring refugees to their areas. And many refugee advocates have expressed concern over how long it will take the groups to come back from those cuts, if they can at all.</p>
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<p>Trump administration officials said in late January they would once again allow refugees from countries included in the bans — which have accounted for more than 40 percent of refugee admissions over the last three years, according to State Department data — so long as the newcomers undergo additional vetting.</p>
<p>President Trump has also slashed the total number of refugees who will be admitted into the U.S., from 110,000 in fiscal 2017 — a bar set by former President Obama — to 45,000 in fiscal 2018, which started in October. And agencies say they aren't even on track to settle that number: Just over 6,000 had come to the country in the last three months.</p>
<p>Hidden behind these figures is the decimation of an expansive refugee resettlement apparatus composed largely of faith-based nonprofit organizations that have partnered with the federal government for decades. Of the nine groups helping refugees find a home in America, six claim a religious affiliation: World Relief, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Church World Service, HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and Episcopal Migration Ministries.</p>
<p>Historically, these groups are contracted by the government to help take in refugees after they undergo a lengthy application and vetting process that involves several agencies, including the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. (The placement of families is determined on a weekly basis through consultation between the State Department and the resettlement groups.)</p>
<p>Once people are brought to the U.S., resettlement groups authorized annually by the State Department typically provide new arrivals with housing and food, as well as long-term assistance for achieving self-sufficiency such as help in finding jobs, learning English and often becoming permanent U.S. residents or citizens.</p>
<p>But leaders of these groups say the Trump administration’s new policies are hobbling their operations and hurting those they serve. They're fighting back and finding hope in a groundswell of support from people of faith, but the future remains uncertain.</p>
<p>“I don’t know how long it will take to undo the damage that has been done,” said Matthew Soerens, U.S. director of church mobilization for World Relief.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>A program under siege</strong></p>
<p>The harm inflicted on the resettlement program by the Trump administration is difficult to calculate. Each organization is structured differently and many partner with independent local groups for on-the-ground efforts.</p>
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Protesters outside White House on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017, demonstrating against President Trump’s travel and refugee ban. (RNS/Jerome Socolovsky) </div>
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<p>Even so, a Reuters report Feb. 14 found that these agencies are preparing to shutter more than 20 offices in the coming year, and the agencies' data highlight a pattern of downsizing in the aftermath of the initial ban.</p>
<p> World Relief, which generally takes in about 10 percent of refugees entering the U.S., announced within weeks of the initial ban that it would lay off more than 140 employees — about one-fifth of its U.S.-based staff — and close five of its local offices.</p>
<p> HIAS reported it is in the process of closing two sites — one in Los Angeles and another in Chicago — and has halted plans to open others.</p>
<p> A Church World Service official said the small band of national-level staff under its purview remains largely intact but predicted all of its partner offices will have to lay off at least one employee in 2018. (An April 2017 Voice of America investigation counted at least 17 layoffs across the organization.)</p>
<p> USCCB officials said they are still deciding how to move forward but already expect to close about 15 sites this year, shifting from 75 to as few as 60. Catholic Charities, the primary affiliate for the USCCB's on-the-ground resettlement work, said that of the 700 full-time employees across its network who work on refugee resettlement, more than 300 are estimated to see a temporary layoff, permanent layoff or possible reassignment due to the refugee ban.</p>
<p> An April 2017 report from the Episcopal News Service said the Episcopal Church would cut its 31-member affiliate network by six in 2018.</p>
<p> Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service said it had not closed any sites, though before she resigned earlier this week as its president and CEO, Linda Hartke confirmed the agency has made staff reductions at its headquarters.</p>
<p>Local organizations appear to bear the brunt of the cuts. Paula Torisk, deputy director of refugee resettlement for Catholic Charities San Antonio, which works with the USCCB's program, said her office has laid off at least 23 people because of the various bans — around 30 percent to 35 percent of her staff.</p>
<p>She said many of those who lost their jobs are, like Giri, themselves refugees or former refugees who have since become U.S. citizens. Her office previously relied on their cultural knowledge and language skills but has been forced to hire translators in their absence.</p>
<p>“You’ve got staff taking on cases where they don’t speak the language,” said Torisk, who has worked with refugees since 1996. “I’ve heard other resettlement programs say, ‘How can we pay for [interpreters] if our funding is cut?’”</p>
<p>She also said that due to uncertainty surrounding the program, funding for the longer-term refugee assistance — such as providing English classes — is now doled out on a quarterly basis instead of annually throughout Texas.</p>
<p>“This has been the most difficult time,” she said. “I’ve always looked at this program like being on a roller coaster ride, but this has been a year like no other.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>From bad to worse</strong></p>
<p>Things are expected to get worse, especially for local offices that work with multiple agencies. In December, the State Department reportedly told refugee groups it will cut the number of offices across the country authorized to resettle refugees in 2018. Offices expected to handle fewer than 100 refugees in fiscal 2018 will no longer be authorized to do so, according to Reuters.</p>
<p>The guidance appears to prohibit nonprofit organizations from working with more than one refugee aid group, but the implications were murky even to some officials.</p>
<p>The State Department, which reportedly sidelined the former head of refugee admissions in January, declined requests for an interview about the new guidance.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, officials say the cost of the ban can sometimes fall disproportionately on the resettlement agencies instead of on the federal government.</p>
<p>Jen Smyers, director of policy and advocacy for the CWS Immigration and Refugee Program, said that after the initial ban came down, several CWS affiliates were suddenly left with empty apartments furnished for refugees who may never arrive. Since the federal government only offers additional funds once a refugee is physically at a site, she said local groups were forced to figure out what to do — sometimes by paying the cost themselves.</p>
<p>Smyers said that for all nine agencies in 2017, there were more than 20,000 cases where refugees did not arrive despite signed agreements with the State Department to resettle them.</p>
<p>“With the more recent bans we have kind of learned this can happen,” she said, adding that now some apartments are only furnished with bare necessities when a refugee arrives.</p>
<p>Bill Canny, executive director of the USCCB’s office of Migration and Refugee Service, recalled one case where his organization stepped in to cover initial costs for an affiliate struggling to pay for an apartment.</p>
<p>And as offices close, issues can compound for people who are already here. One laid-off World Relief worker with permanent resident status — who asked not to be identified due to lack of U.S. citizenship and fear of retribution in America's current political climate — said that when the worker's office closed, it cut off resettled refugees from much-needed services they should have been able to access for years. New arrivals often rely on agency workers to help navigate complicated apartment lease agreements, for instance, as they are typically in a language the refugees do not read or speak.</p>
<p>Now many are forced to fend for themselves, the former caseworker said.</p>
<p>"We're at a moment politically in this country where the Trump administration is only closing the door further on refugees and not creating opportunities for communities like Helena to be a place of hospitality. That’s a hard message for me to carry," Hartke told RNS before stepping down from LIRS, recalling a recent meeting she had with a church in Helena, Mont., interested in taking in refugees.</p>
<p>"It’s a conversation I'd love to see the president have in a church basement someplace like Helena."</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Faith communities left in the lurch</strong></p>
<p>Faith communities have been resettling refugees for decades, Hartke said, and the country's mostly faith-based agencies play a huge role in helping them integrate quickly into life in America. They've taken in refugees fleeing Germany during World War II; the Lost Boys of Sudan; refugees from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Bosnia and, more recently, Burma, Iraq and Syria.</p>
<p>They're people local businesses are eager to employ, who have become doctors and lawyers and philanthropists and leaders in their communities, according to the former LIRS leader. </p>
<p>But the starts and stops over the past year have been painful for these communities, which have stepped up to respond to the refugee crisis.</p>
<p>The "disconnect" felt now by the Lutherans and other church members she meets is "not just around a policy," she said.</p>
<p>"It goes to something much more fundamental to the opportunity we as Americans and Christians have to demonstrate God's love to our neighbors, to demonstrate that we use our gifts and talents to protect the most vulnerable. Somehow that narrative that stretches over 2,000 years is somehow not at all a factor in political machinations that seem to try to be appealing to base instincts and fears in some parts of this country."</p>
<p>A hopeful backlash</p>
<p>Staffing cuts notwithstanding, agency officials see signs of hope. Every group RNS spoke with — including at least one that is not faith-based — mentioned a spike in interest after the initial ban.</p>
<p>CWS reported its volunteer base has quadrupled, while donations to World Relief from churches, individuals and nongovernmental sources have nearly doubled over the past two years and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service’s revenue from the private sector increased by more than 105 percent from 2016 to 2017.</p>
<p>Far more people are now aware of the refugee crisis, according to the Rev. E. Mark Stevenson, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries. Staff at the ministry of the Episcopal Church is working overtime to feed "a hunger out there" from people wanting to learn more about refugees — who they are, what they've been through, what they face coming to the U.S. and other countries.</p>
<p>"That to me is the real bright light in this ... that refugees are so much in the news, people are asking, 'What's this all about?'" Stevenson said.</p>
<p>The problem remains, however, as to how to handle the surge in interest. Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS, said representatives from local partners repeatedly expressed concern during a January retreat over how to accommodate the deluge.</p>
<p>“They have literally hundreds of volunteers lined up with no refugees arriving, or very few,” he said. “It just shows you the great capacity this country has to welcome refugees, and that capacity is going unmet.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Fighting back</strong></p>
<p>Faith-based resettlement groups are refusing to let their work be dismantled without a fight.</p>
<p>Staff and volunteers have taken part in protests across the country decrying the ban throughout 2017 and into 2018. Representatives from CWS and other groups were among those who flooded airports after the ban was announced and have organized subsequent large-scale demonstrations and vigils in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.</p>
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<p>World Relief took out a full-page ad last February in The Washington Post. The ad included the signatures of 500 prominent evangelicals voicing their support for refugees directly to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.</p>
<p>HIAS is listed as a plaintiff in at least two suits filed against the ban and submitted an amicus brief and a supplemental declaration alongside the International Refugee Assistance Project in a Hawaii case challenging the Trump administration's second version. HIAS is also a plaintiff in the most recent case against "travel ban 3.0" brought before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled Thursday that the Trump directive is likely unconstitutional (the ruling is largely symbolic, as the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the ban to take effect while it is brought before the justices).</p>
<p>Other organizations, such as Church World Service, also signed on to amicus briefs ahead of the initial Supreme Court ruling last year, as did 39 faith groups in total.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Unclear path forward</strong></p>
<p>Even with such efforts, the path forward for the resettlement agencies remains unclear. The Trump administration gives little indication it plans to abandon its hawkish stance on refugees.</p>
<p>World Relief has “felt a sense of confusion at least” from the people in the evangelical Christian churches it works with over that stance from a president who claims to represent their interests, according to Soerens.</p>
<p>His hope is that the U.S. goes back to welcoming a historically normal number of refugees and being "a country that is proud of our national identity as a beacon of safety and refuge for those fleeing persecution around the world,” he said.</p>
<p>His fear, however, is even if the administration decided tomorrow to reverse the course it's taken over the past year, it wouldn’t be able to “because we’ve had to reduce our infrastructure so significantly.”</p>
<p>In the meantime, many leaders insist they will figure out a way to handle whatever comes their way, and they appear to be ramping up their calls for change by partnering with an expanding list of allies.</p>
<p>This was clear during a protest outside the White House on Jan. 27 to mark the one-year anniversary of the initial ban. The interfaith gathering was sponsored in part by CWS, HIAS and LIRS; several demonstrators waved signs emblazoned with their logos as speakers — including many faith leaders — praised refugees and decried the Trump administration's policies.</p>
<p>After joining hands with Hetfield from HIAS in solidarity, CWS Interfaith Advocacy Minister the Rev. Reuben Eckels bellowed, “This is a battle for our souls, right here!”</p>
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Sat, 17 Feb 2018 09:00:00 +0000James Dearie161787 at https://www.ncronline.orgLa Civilta Cattolica editor describes pope's 'diplomacy of mercy'https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/la-civilta-cattolica-editor-describes-popes-diplomacy-mercy
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Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, editor of the influential Rome-based magazine La Civilta Cattolica and a close associate of Pope Francis, speaks during a Feb. 13 talk at Georgetown University in Washington. Spadaro outlined the pope&#039;s &quot;diplomacy of mercy&quot; that he has used with both political leaders and their citizens throughout his papacy. (CNS/courtesy Georgetown University) </div>
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<p>Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, editor of the influential Rome-based magazine La Civilta Cattolica and a close associate of Pope Francis, outlined the pope's "diplomacy of mercy" that he has used with both political leaders and their citizens throughout his papacy during a Feb. 13 talk at Georgetown University.</p>
<p>Francis, according to Spadaro , spoke of his diplomatic aims during his 2016 World Communications Day message: "Our political and diplomatic language would do well to be inspired by mercy, which never loses hope."</p>
<p>"This is precisely the meaning of 'mercy' in politics: Do not consider anyone or anything as definitively lost in relations between nations, peoples and states," the priest said in his talk, "The Francis Factor at Five Years: Pope Francis' Global Vision and His Work for a More Just and Peaceful World." It was sponsored by Georgetown's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.</p>
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<p>Spadaro outlined five aspects of Francis' diplomatic ministry, and dwelt at length on the ongoing talks between the Vatican and the Chinese government over the appointment and recognition of bishops there.</p>
<p>The five aspects, Spadaro said, are: "a geopolitics that dissolves fundamentalisms and fear of chaos"; "a geopolitics that does not see Catholicism as a political guarantor of power"; "field-hospital diplomacy"; "an 'incomplete' and 'open' diplomacy"; and "a diplomacy of solidarity."</p>
<p>It was under the "incomplete and open" diplomacy aspect that Spadaro addressed China.</p>
<p>"Francis is walking the same path of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, trying to find a way to dialogue effectively with the Chinese authorities," he said.</p>
<p>"For decades, bishops were elected locally throughout the country in open churches operating with government approval. In countless instances, these were not episcopal candidates approved by Rome. As bishops appointed irregularly and often ordained by other bishops who were similarly appointed without Vatican approval they were -- formally speaking -- automatically excommunicated," the priest continued. "But later, and across the country and across the decades, agreements between these bishops and Rome were reached. But no great issue was made of this, and these bishops and the Vatican reached solutions to realize appointments and just get on with redeveloping dioceses and the church's life."</p>
<p>Spadaro put the number of bishops appointed by the Chinese government and later "legitimated" by either St. John Paul or Pope Benedict at 45, with 70 bishops now considered legitimate by the church and "official" by the state. "Maybe the time has come to move forward," he said.</p>
<p>"Some are asking if it is acceptable to give the authority to ordain bishops to (the) China government," which Spadaro said was a "completely wrong ... mischaracterization."</p>
<p>"The church doesn't want to give away the authority to ordain bishops. The history of the church is the history of finding agreements with the political authorities about the appointments of bishops," he added, noting there are about a dozen countries where civil authorities have consultation or "presentation" rights on bishops, and when a Vatican-Vietnam accord was reached on episcopal appointments, it "raised no noise."</p>
<p>While "it is certain that there will still be misunderstandings, fatigue and suffering to be faced," Spadaro said, the desired outcome is "realistic pastoral solutions that allow Catholics to live their faith and to continue the work of evangelization in the specific Chinese context."</p>
<p>The pope "never gives in to the temptation to identify religion with fundamentalism," Spadaro said. "The pope is light years away from the theorists of a 'clash of civilizations.' Francis seeks to dissolve this double narrative of a toxic final clash of religions that nourishes the fear of chaos."</p>
<p>Francis "strongly resists also" the notion of the church as a "pillar against the decline seen in the crisis of global leadership in the Western world" by dismissing "liberal democracy in favor of a post-modern Middle Ages in which the church would still guard the legitimacy of politics," he added.</p>
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<p>The pope's style of "field-hospital diplomacy" allows him, according to Spadaro , to "touch open wounds with his own hands, carrying out a therapeutic gesture. In fact, Francis touches barriers as if they were the head of a sick person."</p>
<p>"He wants to touch the injured lands one by one," the priest said, citing, among others, Bethlehem, Cairo, Sarajevo, Albania, Sri Lanka, the islands of Lampedusa and Lesbos, and Bangui, Central African Republic.</p>
<p>Francis' diplomacy of solidarity "means acting on the most delicate areas of international politics in the name of the outcast and the weak," Spadaro said.</p>
<p>Peace initiatives "must always be connected to the two great social themes that concern the pope: social peace and social inclusion of the poor," he added. "Francis does not want to propose a 'peace' understood as 'tranquility' at the cost of ignoring the injustices and defense of the poor."</p>
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Wed, 14 Feb 2018 21:03:13 +0000James Dearie161656 at https://www.ncronline.orgReport shows NGOs follow policy barring use of aid for abortionhttps://www.ncronline.org/news/people/report-shows-ngos-follow-policy-barring-use-aid-abortion
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Pro-life advocates are seen near the U.S. Supreme Court during the annual March for Life in Washington Jan. 19. (CNS/Tyler Orsburn) </div>
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<p>A Trump administration report on its reinstatement of the "Mexico City Policy" shows that nongovernmental organizations "are willing and able to comply with this policy," said the U.S. bishops' pro-life committee chairman.</p>
<p>"That compliance does not appear to undermine delivery of appropriate health services," said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York in a Feb. 8 statement.</p>
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<p>The cardinal, who is chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, made the comments in reaction to the administration's release of a six-month report on implementation of the policy, now called Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance.</p>
<p>The policy ensures that U.S. foreign aid does not subsidize foreign nongovernmental organizations that perform or promote abortion on demand.</p>
<p>In a Jan. 23, 2017, executive memorandum -- issued three days after his inauguration -- President Donald Trump, reinstated and expanded the policy, which his predecessor, President Barack Obama, rescinded Jan. 23, 2009, three days after his inauguration for his first term.</p>
<p>In May 2017, the U.S. State Department put the reinstated policy into effect. Trump's memorandum directed the U.S. secretary of state "to implement a plan to extend the Mexico City Policy to "global health assistance furnished by all departments or agencies.'"</p>
<p>"Global health assistance" includes funding for international health programs, such as those for HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, malaria, global health security, and family planning and reproductive health.</p>
<p>Dolan said the Trump administration has restored "our foreign assistance to its rightful goals of promoting health and human rights.</p>
<p>"Abortion undermines basic human rights, certainly for the child, and it also can wound the mother emotionally and physically," he continued. "U.S. tax dollars have no business going to organizations that are unwilling to pursue health outcomes for every person and instead insist on promoting and imposing their abortion ideology on women and children."</p>
<p>He said the six-month report "provides early evidence" that 729 out of 733 NGOs are complying with the policy.</p>
<p>The Mexico City Policy was first put in place by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. It was named for the city that hosted the U.N. International Conference on Population that year and where Reagan, then in his first term as president, unveiled it.</p>
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<p>It was in place until President Bill Clinton took office. He revoked it in 1993, doing away with it so quickly following his inauguration that some participants in the March for Life, conducted two days after the inauguration, carried "Impeach Clinton" signs.</p>
<p>In 2001, President George W. Bush reinstated it in two days into his presidency, expanding it to include all voluntary family planning activities, then Obama rescinded the policy.</p>
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Tue, 13 Feb 2018 17:18:13 +0000James Dearie161551 at https://www.ncronline.orgCatholic higher education has consistent, higher outcomeshttps://www.ncronline.org/news/people/catholic-higher-education-has-consistent-higher-outcomes
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Michael Galligan-Stierle, Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities president and CEO, addresses the annual meeting. (Courtesy of ACCU/Peter Cutts) </div>
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<p>The landscape of Catholic higher education is changing, but the benefit it offers to students and the world is unmistakable, concluded this year's <a href="http://www.accunet.org/About-Catholic-Higher-Education" target="_blank">Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities</a> (ACCU) annual meeting held here Feb. 3-5.</p>
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<p>"We've been at this for a while now, and we certainly know how to do this," Michael Galligan-Stierle, Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities president and CEO, declared at the beginning of the meeting's last panel Feb. 5.</p>
<p>"And we're really good at it, because we've been at it [so] long, and our schools share best practices with one another," he added, stressing the importance of cooperation between Catholic educational institutions, a theme that arose frequently throughout the meeting. "There are other reasons why we're good at this. These are two; there's a lot more," Galligan-Stierle said.</p>
<p>The annual gathering sometimes took sobering turns in discussions about institutions that have recently or may soon face serious financial trouble and even closure as the pool of potential traditional college students is shrinking and technological advances threaten the status quo in higher education. Galligan-Stierle noted that as Catholic schools are developing ways to confront new challenges, they continue to have clear positive effects.</p>
<p>Galligan-Stierle's speech came the morning after Newark* Cardinal Joseph Tobin addressed the conference, discussing how three themes of Pope Francis' papacy — encounter, accompany, and dialogue — apply to the mission of Catholic higher education. </p>
<p>"Francis understands that to arrive at 'encounter,' the church itself must undergo a paradigm shift, to cease being what he calls 'self-referential,' or perhaps we could say, 'self-centered,' " Tobin said.</p>
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<p>Drawing on Tobin's talk, Jesuit Fr. Stephen Sundborg, president of Seattle University, reminded those from Catholic colleges and universities not to "give more effort to self-preservation than to education of students," noting that during his tenure as president he has seen increasing time devoted to the former at the expense of the latter. Academics are ultimately what define a university, and focusing on the mission of educating the full person is the way to keep Catholic institutions relevant, he said.</p>
<p>From Galligan-Stierle's words, it seems that Catholic colleges and universities are doing just that; they "have more women leaders as presidents than any other cohort that exists," he said, adding that students at ACCU member schools "are the top of the game in terms of doing service not only during college, but after they graduate," and are also significantly more likely than their counterparts at other institutions to discuss ethics in class and, surveys show, take those lessons to heart.</p>
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St. Joseph Sr. Kathryn Miller, Chestnut College President St. Joseph Sr. Carol Jean Vale, and Sr. Helen Imhandeyo Alekhuojie, a Sister Servant of the Most Sacred Heart pose standing at a Chestnut College meeting in 2016. Seated is Mercy Thuranira, a student from Ghana, who also joined the meeting. (Courtesy of Chestnut Hill College/Marilee Gallagher) </div>
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<p>Chestnut Hill College president St. Joseph Sr. Carol Jean Vale focused her remarks on the changes and decisions leaders in Catholic higher education need to make in the coming months and years. Changes in technology are opening new opportunities, and educators cannot be left behind.</p>
<p>"Cyberspace is the air they [students] breathe, while we [administrators] need digital oxygen tanks," she said, also noting that "there is concern for faculty competence in the digital world," suggesting her colleagues should hire staff to continually educate faculty on the changes in technology.</p>
<p>"What skills and competencies do our students need to be successful in the 21st century?" Vale asked, highlighting the imperative to educate students to distinguish "fake news" from the truth, as well as determining the future of academics.</p>
<p>Administrators must identify "the disciplines where growth is probable, and how… they compare with our current majors," she said, adding "it is obvious [Catholic colleges and universities] cannot continue to do things the way they've always been done. … Which are the majors that need to be eliminated, which need to be expanded, which need to be offered in a different way?"</p>
<p>It would appear that Catholic universities are on the right track adapting to many of the issues Vale raised. The vast majority, over 90 percent, of students at Catholic colleges and universities receive financial aid, and the average financial award amount is about $19,000, Galligan-Stierle said. He also noted the high rates of socio-economic mobility students see after graduation, as well as their higher rates of pay.</p>
<p>Graduates from Catholic institutions also face a smaller debt burden after graduation, around $25,000 when the national average is about $35,000, and are far more likely to pay their loans back.</p>
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Participants at the 2017 annual meeting of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (Courtesy of ACCU/Peter Cutts) </div>
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<p>"Part of the reason education can cost so much is because it takes five or six years to [graduate]. The worst thing that could happen is someone does one two or three years and doesn't get to the finish line. That debt is enormous if you don't have that credential," Galligan-Stierle said, noting that Catholic educated students tend to graduate in a shorter timespan than their counterparts at other universities.</p>
<p>While the challenges are undeniable, for Catholic colleges and universities, their ability to adapt and remain successful is also clear. "It was nice to see that some of the steps we've taken were the ones that were being affirmed at the meeting," Andrew Manion, president of Marian University in Fond du Lac Wisconsin, told NCR.</p>
<p>"We have been expanding to serve adult students for a number of years now, and we have developed some online programs we are in the process of expanding as well, and so we're cognizant of the changing demographics regarding high school graduation rates," he said, noting that Marian University had enrolled the largest class of first-year students in its history, more than 350 people for the 2017-18 academic year.</p>
<p>While some at the conference used the language of redefining or expanding the mission of small Catholic colleges, "redefining your Catholicity, or redefining the charism of the order that sponsors you … that, to me, is off the table," Manion said. "Your mission is your mission." Instead, he believes that a better expression of what needs to be reconsidered is institutions' "audiences" as demographics change along with the pool of potential students.</p>
<p>Despite the darker turns the conversation took at times, the meeting ended with a positive message. </p>
<p>"You folks are doing a fabulous job," Galligan-Stierle told the crowd of Catholic college and university administrators, "and we need to find a way to keep getting positive messages out there,"</p>
<p><em style="color: rgb(65, 64, 66); font-family: Merriweather, Times, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.98px;">*This story has been corrected to reflect that Cardinal Tobin is the archbishop of Newark, not Indianapolis as a previous version of the article stated.</em></p>
<p>[James Dearie is an NCR Bertelsen intern. Contact him at <a href="mailto:jdearie@ncronline.org">jdearie@ncronline.org</a>.]</p>
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A version of this story appeared in the paper...
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<a href="/issues/feb-23-march-8-2018" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Feb 23-March 8, 2018</a> </span>
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Higher ed meeting considers changing landscape </span>
Mon, 12 Feb 2018 17:11:02 +0000Tracy Abeln161461 at https://www.ncronline.orgBishop Stowe joins Pax Christi USA board as episcopal presidenthttps://www.ncronline.org/news/people/bishop-stowe-joins-pax-christi-usa-board-episcopal-president-0
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Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Ky., is seen in this 2015 file photo. (CNS/courtesy Diocese of Lexington) </div>
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<p>For the first time in six years, Pax Christi USA has a bishop president.</p>
<p>Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, has joined the national council of the Catholic peace organization.</p>
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<p>Sister Patricia Chappell, Pax Christi USA's executive director, said Stowe was a good fit with its values of peacemaking, disarmament, and racial and social justice.</p>
<p>"Pax Christi USA traditionally has had a bishop president," she told Catholic News Service.</p>
<p>She cited the bishop's ministry to poor and marginalized people throughout his priesthood as why the organization asked him to consider joining the council. He also serves as bishop liaison to the Catholic Committee of Appalachia.</p>
<p>"Bishop Stowe, being a bishop in one of the poorest dioceses in the U.S. brings a pastoral dimension to his ministry, listening to the struggling people of his diocese," explained Chappell, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.</p>
<p>The diocese covers 50 counties in central and eastern Kentucky and includes 40 counties that are part of Appalachia, where 74 percent of children live in poverty.</p>
<p>Stowe, 51, a Conventual Franciscan, said he was pleased to take on the role. He had been active in Pax Christi USA when he studied at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California.</p>
<p>He said he appreciates that the organization has a rich tradition of spirituality to accompany its positions on justice and nonviolence.</p>
<p>"Pax Christ is one of the ways I keep the peace dimension of our faith in teaching and preaching and witnessing for Christ," he told CNS. "I'll be exploring ways to that about. You couldn't have lasting peace without justice."</p>
<p>He said the peace group has evolved in recent years to look more broadly at issues of economic and racial justice as part of the effort to create a peaceful, nonviolent world. That, he said, is a good thing.</p>
<p>The bishop credited Pope Francis for helping Catholics understand that full human development requires people of faith to connect economic, racial and environmental concerns with issues of war and peace. Such concerns are not a political undertaking, he insisted.</p>
<p>"With all the divisions, our work needs to be grounded in the principle of nonviolence, which doesn't mean we don't acknowledge the differences or don't mean to address core issues. It does mean we address them in a respectful way, and church people need to lead the way," he said.</p>
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<p>Stowe became bishop of Lexington in 2015. Prior to his appointment by Pope Francis, he had been his order's vicar provincial of the Province of Our Lady of Consolation in the Midwest and Southwest and pastor and rector of the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio.</p>
<p>The organization had been without a bishop president since January 2012 when Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala resigned from his ministry after disclosing to superiors that he was the father of two children.</p>
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Mon, 12 Feb 2018 16:26:45 +0000James Dearie161456 at https://www.ncronline.org4.5 million displaced in Congo 'struggling to survive,' says aid workerhttps://www.ncronline.org/news/world/45-million-displaced-congo-struggling-survive-says-aid-worker
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Priests celebrate Mass for citizens killed in recent protests at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Congo in Kinshasa, Congo, Feb. 9. (CNS/Robert Carrubba, Reuters) </div>
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<p>Just as people are "struggling to survive" in Congo, aid agencies are struggling to meet their needs, said one aid worker.</p>
<p>Political unrest in and around the capital, Kinshasa, is just the latest malady to afflict the Congolese citizens, said Chiara Nava, an adviser to the AVSI Foundation, an aid agency focusing on education and child protection and inspired by Catholic social teaching. She worked in the country for two-and-a-half years before taking on an advisory role.</p>
<p>Still, the difference between the country she worked in and the country she visited in January is noticeable to Nava.</p>
<p>"The political situation is not good at all," she told Catholic News Service in a Feb. 9 telephone interview from her home in Raleigh, North Carolina. "There are lots of public demonstrations, especially in the capital."</p>
<p>Layered on top of the upheaval is ethnic fighting. Nava said there are 4.5 million internally displaced people in the country.</p>
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<p>"It's also difficult for humanitarian aid workers to follow these people. They're moving a lot," she said.</p>
<p>Like other international aid agencies, the foundation has a "rapid response mechanism," a program intended to follow people fleeing from disasters and conflicts, "to help people moving inside a country," Nava said. "We manage to follow them and provide new humanitarian aid in the areas where they resettle."</p>
<p>Many of those internally displaced people, she added, "have to flee (only) with anything in their hands, and they need help." The problem with families, Nava said, is "after two weeks, three weeks, they flee again."</p>
<p>She told CNS, "We see the most vulnerable being in danger. People are struggling to survive."</p>
<p>Another underlying reason for the conflict: gold and other minerals, and who lays claim to them.</p>
<p>"In some areas, they (rebels) focus more on fighting with the regular army; in others they are interested in the natural resources where they are. In some cases, they are starving as well," Nava said. Some rebel militias "burn everything, they kill everything. There's some frustration among the poorest. Unfortunately, they act this way because they are armed and they have the tools to do that. We find they are not very well educated ... and half of them are child soldiers."</p>
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<p>It's a hit-or-miss situation in Congo.</p>
<p>"Some areas are well-controlled. Local administration functions quite well," Nava said. "In other areas, they suffer from this ethnic conflict, and the position of the government for excavation of national resources is not very clear. There are not a lot of situations — there are lots of different shapes of this main problem."</p>
<p>Absent from Nava's equation is Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, which has been fighting in the north part of the country. The AVSI Foundation no longer has workers in that region.</p>
<p>The safety of its aid workers, now mostly in the eastern part of the country, continues to be a concern.</p>
<p>"We keep on going. So far, we are reviewing our contingency measures and contingency plans," Nava told CNS. "We want to work in fragile contexts and fragile situations."</p>
<p>"We know it's not very safe," she added, "but we know where and when to go."</p>
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Mon, 12 Feb 2018 16:22:07 +0000Maria Benevento161446 at https://www.ncronline.orgCatholic Social Ministry Gathering aims for diversity, bipartisanshiphttps://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/catholic-social-ministry-gathering-aims-diversity-bipartisanship
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This article appears in the <strong><a href="/feature-series/catholic-social-ministry-gathering-2018" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Catholic Social Ministry Gathering 2018</a></strong> feature series. <a href="/taxonomy/term/108826">View the full series</a>. </div>
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From left: R.R. Reno, Sr. Patricia Chappell, moderator Kim Daniels, Maryann Cusimano-Love and Jesuit Fr. Matthew Malone, members of panel on &quot;Moving from a Throwaway Culture to a Culture of Encounter,&quot; Feb. 5 at the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in Washington D.C. (Provided photo) </div>
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<p>On the third day of a four-day gathering of Catholic social ministers, the otherwise bipartisan — some might say even apolitical — conference exploded with fiery, frank words about the current political climate in this country.</p>
<p>"We have to admit that … 50 percent of Catholics voted for 'Mr. #45,' " said Sr. Patricia Chappell, executive director of Pax Christi USA, referring to President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Citing the current administration's problematic policies on health care and immigration, as well as Trump's repeated insults of Africans and African-Americans, she asked, "Where are we as a Catholic Church speaking out against this?"</p>
<p>Chappell, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, quoted civil rights heroine Fannie Lou Hamer: "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired," drawing applause from — and perhaps speaking for — many of the 500 attendees at the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering. </p>
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<p>The annual gathering has been held in Washington, D.C., for more than 25 years, although it was on hiatus last year because of the U.S. bishops' "Convocation of Catholic Leaders" event, held in Florida in July. This was the first social ministry gathering since Trump's election, although his name was surprisingly absent from keynote and other presentations.</p>
<p>Still, speakers addressed issues of <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/immigration-focus-first-day-catholic-social-ministry-gathering-3" target="_blank">immigration</a>, <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/parish/bishop-lays-out-plans-eradicating-plague-racism" target="_blank">race</a> and the <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/environment/churchs-efforts-protect-amazon-vital-panelists-say" target="_blank">environment </a>in keynote presentations, while community and policy workshops covered poverty, hunger, housing, the opioid crisis, Native American issues, domestic violence, criminal justice issues, nuclear war and labor, as well as international issues.</p>
<p>Chappell's comments came during a plenary session on the challenge of polarization in the culture and in the church. The five-person panel included the equally provocative editor of the conservative journal First Things, who admitted he was likely invited to say "controversial things."</p>
<p>"We have to stop cheerleading for openness, fluidity and diversity," said R.R. "Rusty" Reno, arguing that a post-World War II emphasis on "open borders, open minds and open societies" has weakened national and communal solidarity.</p>
<p>Reno also criticized Pope Francis' image of the church as a "field hospital," saying the church needs to give people who are hurting "solid things" rather than "a tent flapping in the wind … something impermanent and moveable."</p>
<p>Reno also cautioned against applying the church's universality to national policy on immigration. "If you don't have a home, you cannot exercise hospitality," he said. "We have to think prudently about what the limits are, about maintaining national solidarity and a sense of the common good."</p>
<p><strong>Immigration and other issues</strong></p>
<p>That was hard to hear for Ruth Umanzor, a senior at St. Thomas University in St. Paul and one of more than 100 college students at the social ministry gathering. The substantial numbers — 20 percent of attendees, representing 26 colleges and universities — was the result of an intentional outreach to younger Catholics by organizers.</p>
<p>Umanzor is a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and the uncertainty about her future because the program's protection from deportation may end is causing her and her family anxiety, not to mention delaying her plans for graduate school. </p>
<p>"I, like many other 'Dreamers,' consider the U.S. to be our home," Umanzor told NCR. She also shared her story with legislators as part of the lobbying action of the last day of the social ministry gathering.</p>
<p>Support for a Dreamer bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children was identified as one of three legislative priorities by the gathering's organizers, which include the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' <a href="http://www.usccb.org/about/justice-peace-and-human-development/" target="_blank">Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development</a> and 16 other national Catholic organizations.</p>
<p>The strategy — from the bishop's Office of Migration Policy and Public Affairs — argued for a narrow bill that secures protection for Dreamers and looks to broader immigration reforms in the future. Other Catholic leaders, including Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, (who <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/georgetown-cardinal-tobin-shares-journey-immigrants" target="_blank">spoke at nearby Georgetown University during the gathering</a>), have called for a "clean" DACA bill, which does not compromise by agreeing to a border wall or increased security in exchange for protection for Dreamers.</p>
<p>The other two legislative issues identified for lobbying by attendees at the social ministry gathering were funding for domestic social safety net programs and poverty-reducing international assistance/diplomacy.</p>
<p>Although Reno's positions on openness, diversity and immigration were likely not shared by the majority of the social ministers attending the conference, he was included precisely to present different viewpoints, according to organizer Jonathan Reyes.</p>
<p>"We would like to believe that the church is a place you can have principled disagreement," said Reyes, assistant general secretary for integral human development for the U.S. bishops. "If we can't do it, who can?"</p>
<p><strong>Politically homeless?</strong></p>
<p>Aside from the panel on polarization, overt references to politics were relatively rare from the speakers at the event. "We try to stay out of this as a partisan fight and go by issue: What do we care about, and how do we best advance that issue?" Reyes told NCR.</p>
<p>Yet in smaller groups, some attendees wondered if the Catholic Church had made a mistake and "sold out immigrants" by emphasizing abortion and religious liberty as primary political issues in the 2016 presidential election.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.people-press.org/2016/09/13/2-party-affiliation-among-voters-1992-2016/" target="_blank">Studies of party affiliation</a> show that Catholics are about evenly split among Democrats and Republicans, depending on the issues voters are likely to emphasize. The Republican Party has courted Catholic voters who prioritize pro-life issues related to abortion, while those who consider other social justice issues — such as immigration and social safety net programs — are more likely to vote Democratic.</p>
<p>That split has diminished Catholics' lobbying influence, believes theologian James Bailey of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, who was attending the social ministry gathering for the first time.</p>
<p>"But the church has a credibility that other institutions don't because its positions come out of a faith tradition, not a political one," Bailey said.</p>
<p>The inability of one party to speak to all issues the church cares about means Catholics are "politically homeless if we follow Catholic social teaching," Tom Dwyer, chair of the national Voice of the Poor Committee of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, told those attending a workshop on "Finding the Common Good in a Throw-Away Culture."</p>
<p>While much has been made about the influence of evangelical Christians on the current president and legislators, it can be difficult to compare evangelicals' influence to that of Catholics, Reyes said. Still, the church's voice matters, he said.</p>
<p> "I'm happy to say the faith voice still gets a hearing," he said. "Whether it is determinative depends on the issues and who you're trying to influence."</p>
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<p><strong>On the Hill</strong></p>
<p>To that end, attendees headed to Capitol Hill on the gathering's last day to meet with their legislators and to argue for the priorities of immigration, domestic social safety net programs and international development aid.</p>
<p>At a closing reception — bipartisanly sponsored by Democratic Sen. Joseph Donnelly of Indiana and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida — most attendees reported positive meetings, in which congressional staffers listened attentively to their concerns.</p>
<p>Those who visited Democratic legislators' offices said they received promises of support, while some who visited Republican offices said there were fewer promises. Many reported GOP legislators were favorable toward extension of DACA, but also wanted money for border security — and perhaps Trump's wall — in return.</p>
<p>Lea Sanon of Takoma Park, Maryland, said her lobbying was well received. "They were pleased we were making our voices heard," she said. "I think it makes a bigger impact because we are Catholic."</p>
<p>But Ann Grelecki Anderson of Chicago wondered if Catholics would have more impact "if we were a strong, unified voice."</p>
<p>Vincentian Fr. Perry Henry of Los Angeles said he recognizes the reality of politically divided Catholics. "When I preach, I preach to a congregation that falls on both sides," he said. "Part of the problem is that we aren't listening to each other."</p>
<p>But for Umanzor, being able to speak about her fears and concerns as a Dreamer to legislators from Minnesota was invaluable. And the conference itself — which emphasized social action rather than just spirituality — was life-changing, she said.</p>
<p>"This is the action part of our faith, what we're doing for our community, for our neighbor, for everyone who is vulnerable," she said. "We're all in this together."</p>
<p> [Heidi Schlumpf is NCR national correspondent. Her email address is hschlumpf@ncronline.org. Follow her on Twitter @HeidiSchlumpf.]</p>
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<h3 class="views-field views-field-title"> <a href="/news/justice/immigration-focus-first-day-catholic-social-ministry-gathering-3">Immigration a focus of first day at Catholic Social Ministry Gathering</a> </h3>
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A version of this story appeared in the paper...
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Social ministry gathering aims for bipartisanship </span>
Thu, 08 Feb 2018 20:02:01 +0000Mick Forgey161316 at https://www.ncronline.orgTrump at prayer breakfast says US 'strengthened by the power of prayer'https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/trump-prayer-breakfast-says-us-strengthened-power-prayer
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President Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 8, 2018, in Washington. (RNS/Jerome Socolovsky) </div>
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<p>In his second appearance at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, President Trump steered clear of partisan politics and focused on his belief in the country's dependence on God.</p>
<p>"America's a nation of believers and together we are strengthened by the power of prayer," the president said in his 14-minute speech that emphasized connections between religion and government.</p>
<p>The 66th annual event, which drew more than 3,800 people to the Washington Hilton on Thursday (Feb. 8), is a time for prayer, speeches and networking between religious and political leaders from scores of countries. Guests at the breakfast of quiche, bagels and fruit salad included the presidents of Guatemala, Kosovo and Latvia.</p>
<p>Trump cited mentions of God in the Declaration of Independence, the words "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency and the etching of "Praise Be to God" atop the Washington Monument.</p>
<p>"Each year this event reminds us that faith is central to American life and to liberty," he said. "Our rights are not given to us by man. Our rights come from our creator. No matter what, no earthly force can take those rights away."</p>
<p>Trump's speech, which also honored first responders, tireless teachers and hard-working parents, was a shift from his first speech to the annual event last year in which he promised to "totally destroy the Johnson Amendment," a 1954 legislative measure that prohibits tax-exempt houses of worship from involvement in partisan politics.</p>
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<p>He also garnered headlines last year for using the prayer breakfast to bash Arnold Schwarzenegger, who took over as host after Trump left the reality show "The Apprentice."</p>
<p>Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., who spoke after Trump and described the "miracles" of his and others' surviving a June shooting at a congressional baseball practice, expressed his appreciation for Trump's challenge last year. He noted the House passed a measure to repeal the Johnson Amendment. But the Senate later removed it from the final tax bill.</p>
<p>Both Scalise, who declared "You can't separate church from state," and the president emphasized the importance of Americans' right to express religious views.</p>
<p>"We see the power of God's love at work in our souls and the power of God's will to answer all of our prayers," Trump said. "When Americans are able to live by their convictions, to speak openly of their faith and to teach their children what is right, our families thrive, our communities flourish and our nation can achieve anything at all."</p>
<p>At times, the prayer breakfast almost resembled a celebration of faith healing, with an appearance by a military veteran who bounced back from serious injury in a car bomb attack in Iraq, and the president giving a shoutout to a 9-year-old girl who has a disabling illness but whose doctor said she was able to walk again because "this little girl has God on her side."</p>
<p>Held in early February each year, the breakfast is sponsored by the Fellowship Foundation, a secretive Christian organization also known as the International Foundation. It is co-hosted by both Democratic and Republican members of House and Senate weekly prayer groups.</p>
<p>The breakfast also paid tribute to one of its founders, who died last year in late February.</p>
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<p>"Our hearts are also saddened by the absence of the co-founder of this wonderful breakfast who passed away last year, Doug Coe, who everybody loved," Trump said in his remarks. "For 60 years Doug devoted his time and passion to this prayer breakfast and to many other wonderful causes."</p>
<p>Coe, the longtime organizer of the breakfast, emphasized the foundation's focus on people-to-people relationships. The breakfast is known not just for its big-ticket main event but the ancillary gatherings that give leaders a chance to meet and talk.</p>
<p>This year, there were a significant number of Russian attendees at a time when congressional leaders have been investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign.</p>
<p>Speaking in the corridor afterward, Konstantin Bendas of the Pentecostal Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith said that a delegation of about 55 Russians attended the breakfast.</p>
<p>"When politicians cannot agree with each other, that's the time when mere humans, mere people, should step in and start negotiating," he said, speaking through an interpreter. "And believing people will kneel in prayer. And I think partially we have managed to do that today."</p>
<p>Other attendees said they appreciated the multi-day opportunity to connect with other people of faith.</p>
<p>"A lot of people focus on just the breakfast," said Donna Rice Hughes, president and CEO of Enough is Enough: Making the Internet Safer for Children and Families. "But it really is about three days of events and people coming together from all over the world and coming together in the spirit of Jesus."</p>
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Thu, 08 Feb 2018 18:16:11 +0000Maria Benevento161311 at https://www.ncronline.orgEvangelicals join interfaith leaders in Washington to promote religious tolerancehttps://www.ncronline.org/news/people/evangelicals-join-interfaith-leaders-washington-promote-religious-tolerance
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Panel discussion at the Alliance of Virtue conference in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 7, 2018. (RNS/Jack Jenkins) </div>
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<p>As hundreds of Jewish, Muslim and Christian faith leaders from the United States and abroad descended on Washington for a conference on religious tolerance this week, attendees were quick to note an unexpectedly large delegation from one particular religious group: evangelical Christians.</p>
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<p>Speakers at the "Alliance of Virtue for the Common Good" repeatedly highlighted their surprise and delight over the noticeable contingent of evangelicals among the more than 400 attendees at the glitzy, three-day series of discussions and speeches.</p>
<p>The presence of so many evangelicals, a group often associated with a negative view of Islam, provided a welcome backdrop for an event aimed at championing tolerance, many said.</p>
<p>Hamza Yusuf, president of Zaytuna College, America's first accredited Muslim college, said the evangelical presence was especially notable given recent polling: According to a 2017 poll from Pew Research, nearly three-quarters of white evangelicals say there is a natural conflict between Islam and democracy, compared with roughly half or fewer of those in other major religious groups who express the same view.</p>
<p>White evangelicals were also the major religious group most supportive of President Trump's 2017 travel ban — sometimes called a "Muslim ban" — barring immigrants and refugees from several Muslim-majority countries, according to a 2017 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute.</p>
<p>"The evangelicals coming took great courage, because of a lot of the attitudes within that community," Yusuf told Religion News Service on Feb. 7, the conference's last day.</p>
<p>"The evangelicals coming took great courage, because of a lot of the attitudes within that community." — Hamza YusufAt one point, Bob Roberts, an evangelical pastor at Northwood Church in Keller, Texas, asked evangelicals in the crowd to clap if they were excited about the conference and its message.</p>
<p>"This is new for us — it shouldn't be new for us," he said over the applause. "I'm not a Muslim, but I just really care about religious freedom. … The tribal way we are doing religion today is going to destroy us."</p>
<p>In a separate interview with RNS, Roberts said the "older, higher levels" of evangelicalism are unlikely to embrace the message of the conference, because they "have an old worldview." But he argued that younger evangelicals have "realized the world has shifted" and that the conference is a model for future efforts to protect religious liberty.</p>
<p>"Here's something that's really problematic about how we think about religious freedom: We get Christians together and say, 'Here's how we're going to do it.' That day is over," he said. "If we don't have conversations on religious freedom with Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews — they're wasted conversations."</p>
<p>Deborah Fikes, a Texas-based Southern Baptist and former permanent representative from the World Evangelical Alliance to the United Nations, also discussed the challenges of interfaith work among conservative Christian groups.</p>
<p>"Growing up, Catholics were criticized, Muslims were criticized … the Methodists were criticized. … It was always such a focus on our differences," she said during a Wednesday panel. "Yes, there are definitely obstacles [to tolerance] for evangelicals because of that culture."</p>
<p>Fikes said that in her U.N. work, she observed that American military actions abroad can foster negative perceptions, especially when conflated with the belief that the U.S. is a "Christian nation." She expressed concern that the "conservative political party's policies" in the U.S. are "really hurting the most vulnerable," pointing to evangelical support for the Trump administration's recent decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel — despite widespread objection among Middle Eastern Christians.</p>
<p>"I know that conservative Christians … are so passionate about protecting Christian minorities in the Middle East, but that one decision has greatly harmed and compromised the Christian minorities we want to protect," she said.</p>
<p>The conference also touted its declaration, released Thursday, at the end of the gathering.</p>
<p>"Recognizing that our shared values are more important than our differences, and that we are strongest when we act together, we pledge to combine our best efforts to foster unity where there is discord, aid the impoverished, tend the vulnerable, heal the poor in spirit, and support measures that will ensure respect for the dignity of every human being," the declaration reads in part.</p>
<p>It later adds: "There is no room for compulsion in religion, just as there are no legitimate grounds for excluding the followers of any religion from full and fair participation in society."</p>
<p>"This is new for us — it shouldn't be new for us." — Bob RobertsIn addition, the statement, referred to as the "Washington Declaration," called for concrete steps: serving a billion meals to victims of violence and conflict and proposing the creation of a "multireligious body" that would "support mediation and reconciliation that will act in accordance with our shared values to build peace in the world."</p>
<p>"I recommend we create an alliance from our religious traditions … to be a mediating team for reconciliation between conflicting groups," Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah, president of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies and a driving force behind the gathering, said to the crowd while speaking through a translator.</p>
<p>During the same panel, Rabbi David Rosen, international director for the American Jewish Committee's Department of Interreligious Affairs, described the event as "an incredibly historic gathering that sets the stage for a new era."</p>
<p>Other participants included Bishop Efraim Tendero, secretary-general of the World Evangelical Alliance; Timo Soini, minister for foreign affairs of Finland; and Rabbi David Saperstein, director emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.</p>
<p>The declaration did not mention Trump's travel ban, and it was not clear how many attendees — if any — hailed from the Muslim-majority countries listed in the most recent iteration of the ban: Syria, Iran, Chad, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.</p>
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<p>The conference also included the first public address by newly appointed U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback. The former Kansas governor — who was confirmed by the Senate last month after Vice President Mike Pence cast a tie-breaking vote — described the conference as a model and spoke of religious freedom as the "most important foreign relations topic today."</p>
<p>"This is the big one," said Brownback, who grew up Methodist, converted to Catholicism and reportedly also attends an evangelical church. He said later: "The administration has made clear this is a foreign policy and national security objective."</p>
<p>Brownback's presence was not without controversy. Conservative outlet PJ Media published an article Tuesday criticizing the ambassador for associating with Bin Bayyah, who its authors described as a "hardline Islamic cleric" who endorsed "killing of Americans in Iraq."</p>
<p>Roberts, who later said he has experience enduring pushback from fellow conservatives who disapprove of his interactions with Muslim leaders, appeared to reference the piece on Wednesday morning during a panel discussion, referring to "articles that come out from crazy people."</p>
<p>"I love you, Sheikh," he said, pointing to Bin Bayyah in the audience. "[Even] if you were a really bad person, then I've got a chance to reach people worse than you … why do we think making peace is with good people?"</p>
<p>The conference concluded a day before the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, an annual gathering of largely conservative Christians that often includes an address by the president of the United States. Both Roberts and Yusuf said they planned to attend the breakfast.</p>
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Thu, 08 Feb 2018 16:49:59 +0000James Dearie161296 at https://www.ncronline.orgAt Georgetown, Cardinal Tobin shares journey with immigrantshttps://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/georgetown-cardinal-tobin-shares-journey-immigrants
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From left: Georgetown University student Mizraim Belman Guerrero, John Carr, Cardinal Joseph Tobin and student Habon Ali, Feb. 5 at Georgetown University (Georgetown University/Phil Humnicky) </div>
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<p>The conversation, "Sharing the Journey with Immigrants and Refugees," was one of a series of Dahlgren Dialogues co-sponsored by Georgetown's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life and the Office of Mission and Ministry. Find more information on the series at <a href="http://bit.ly/2dAFu9q" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2dAFu9q</a>.</p>
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<p>In a freewheeling conversation Feb. 5 inside a packed chapel on Georgetown University's campus, Newark, New Jersey, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, a Redemptorist priest known for accompanying migrants to deportation hearings and his commitment to the poor, minced no words about immigration. </p>
<p>"I think if we're going to sign off on a deal, we'd better understand what's really being exchanged," Tobin said, noting that the views were his own and not necessarily those of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is advocating narrow immigration reform focusing on a path to citizenship for Dreamers. </p>
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<p>"If we accept a deal uncritically, thinking that's all we can get, we may actually be establishing a foundation that will result in greater harm."<br />
—Cardinal Joseph Tobin</p>
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<p>"I fully support a clean DACA bill, and I think any sort of tit for tat on this one is very dangerous," he said bluntly.</p>
<p>Noting that the administration's budget proposal to Congress includes significant asks for additional detention beds and an expansion of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, Tobin cautioned that a slippery slope of mass deportations could lie ahead. </p>
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<p>"If we accept a deal uncritically, thinking that's all we can get, we may actually be establishing a foundation that will result in greater harm," he said.</p>
<p>With the Feb. 8 deadline for Congress to pass budget legislation and avoid a second government shutdown looming, a deal to extend protection for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients hangs in the balance over demands for concessions from Democrats on border security. </p>
<p>Temporary protected status for DACA recipients runs out March 5. The program is being used as a bargaining chip by the Trump administration in exchange for funding for a border wall, an end to so-called "chain migration," and an end to the diversity visa program. </p>
<p>Tobin shared the stage with John Carr, director of the Georgetown Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, and two Georgetown students brought to this country illegally as children.</p>
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From left: Georgetown University student Mizraim Belman Guerrero, John Carr, Cardinal Joseph Tobin and student Habon Ali, Feb. 5 at Georgetown University (Georgetown University/Phil Humnicky) </div>
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<p>Their presence brought home the Gospel message that Tobin has been relentlessly sharing with parishioners and legislators alike: that the story of Christ, the refugee, is a story of "scandalous migration," and that we must humanize our brothers and sisters who are immigrants, because we, too, were once aliens.</p>
<p>"Religious leaders must stand with immigrants to put a face on them," he said. On this matter, he believes Pope Francis has set the tone for the church, identifying migration and immigration as the defining issue of his papacy, a responsibility that lies "on his (Francis') heart and on the church." </p>
<p>Georgetown University has been vocal in its support of Dreamers, young men and women who were brought to this country illegally as children and who seek lawful, permanent resident status under the DREAM Act. An NPR/Ipsos poll shows that <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/02/06/583402634/npr-poll-2-in-3-support-legal-status-for-dreamers-majority-oppose-building-a-wal" target="_blank">about two-thirds</a> of the American public favors granting legal status to Dreamers, although the Dream Act of 2017 has not been passed by either house of Congress. </p>
<p>DACA, passed in 2012, provides temporary lawful status with work authorization to approximately 690,000 young immigrants currently enrolled in the program. DACA recipients are a subset of the Dreamer population, which numbers approximately 3.2 million, according to the <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/mpi-estimates-number-dreamers-potentially-eligible-benefit-under-different-legalization" target="_blank">Migration Policy Institute</a>. </p>
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<p>Mizraim Belman Guerrero, a junior at Georgetown, shared his story of coming to the United States at the age of 2 with his mother and brother to be reunited with his father. Guerrero said he didn't understand what it meant to be undocumented until 2011, when his father was arrested after a traffic stop, detained, and put into deportation hearings.</p>
<p>"Again, I was growing up without a father," he said. Two years later, Guerrero and his brother "heckled" then-President Barack Obama at a speech in Austin, Texas, and ended up with an invitation to speak with the president backstage. The two shared their story of lives growing up undocumented. The DACA program was announced the following year.</p>
<p>A DACA recipient, Guerrero said he can't plan beyond his 2020 graduation, nor can he travel abroad, although he'd like to visit his two remaining grandparents in Mexico, to confer upon them his college degree, because, he said, "it's for them." </p>
<p>Habon Ali was also on the stage. A native of Kenya who will graduate from Georgetown this spring, she came to the U.S. at the age of 8 and lived with her family for a time in a homeless shelter. </p>
<p>They came, she said, to live the American dream. "To follow the yellow brick road," Habon said. What they got was something else. "In my eyes, we came from poverty to poverty."</p>
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<p>Tobin, who shared his Irish grandmother's immigration story, gently debunked the idea that working-class Americans have something to fear from immigrants. He blamed an alarmist, 24-hour news culture for fanning the flames of intolerance and condemning immigrants to live in the shadows.</p>
<p>"Even without the Christian ethic, people of goodwill wonder why the most helpless and vulnerable among us are singled out for such inhumane treatment," he said. Like Ali's family, many of them have found something quite different from what they hoped they would find when they fled poverty or violence or both in their home countries. </p>
<p>"I think the U.S. they thought they were coming to wasn't just a Sears catalogue," he said, "but I think they thought it was a better country."</p>
<p>[Julie Bourbon is a freelance writer based in Washington.]</p>
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Tue, 06 Feb 2018 20:33:08 +0000Mick Forgey161186 at https://www.ncronline.org